Five Very Strange Victorian Era Deaths

These stories were from Newspaper reports of the Victorian Era, and they give us a glimpse of how life was like, by reporting the circumstances of some deaths:

Mouse

1. KILLER MOUSE: England 1875, a mouse suddenly dashed onto a worktable in a South London factory. The women workers scattered in all direction.

There was pandemonium and panick, then a young man stepped forward and seized the mouse. The saviour had come and it seemed all was over, but not quite.

The mouse slipped out of his grasp and into his sleeve and then popped out of the open neck of his shirt.

In his surprise the young man opened his mouth and then in went the mouse, then the young and swallowed the mouse.

What happened next was a scene out of a horror movie for the mouse started to tear, scratch and bite right inside the man's throat and the unfortunate fellow died a painful and agonising death.

2. KILLER COFFIN: Coffin bearers are typically strong and sure-footed fellows and they are seldom known to stumble while on the job.

But for Henry Taylor it was one stumble too far. One mournful day in November 1872, while Pall bearer Henry Taylor and his colleagues were in the middle of a funeral procession, with the coffin on their shoulders, Henry caught his foot on a stone and stumbled, and, while he fell, the other Pall bearers let go of the coffin which fell on Henry and killing him instantly.

Pall Bearing

The widow of the man about to be buried nearly died of hysteria.

3. ZOMBIE KILLERS: During a funeral in a Village in Russia the coffin lid suddenly came off and the corpse began to climb out. There was a stampede as everybody, including the priest, ran out of the church and scampered to their homes locking their doors behind them.

But the awoken corpse went after them trying to tell them something, but no one was ready or willing to hear.

Coffin

Soon, the Russian priest realised that the man was actually not dead, but a coma patient who had just regained consciousness. And then he began to run back to him to hear him out.

But he was already too late.

By then the peasants of the village, thinking they were under attack by an Undead, have armed themselves with guns, knives, swords etc and have attacked the "Zombie" and returned him to the world of the dead.

By the time the priest got there, the body had already been thrown into the marsh.

4. KILLED BY DECENCY: The place was Bermuda, and the year was 1892. Some sailors were busy having a party when a fight broke out, then some one fell overboard into the water.

A sailor began to strip-off in order to save the drowning man but was stopped by an officer.
Why??
Because there was a boat filled with ladies nearby and it would not be moral or decent for them to see a nearly naked man.

Drowning Man

After a while when the desperate struggle of the man drowning man could no longer be ignored, the same officer called for volunteers and five men jumped into the water.

But it was already too late. The man had drowned.

5. DEADLY LAUGHTER: Wesley Parsons was a farmer in Laurel, Indiana and he was a very jolly and funny man.

One day, in 1893, while sharing a joke with friends he was seized by a fit of uncontrollable laughter which he could not stop.

Laughing Man

The laughter continued for an hour then he began to hiccup, two hours later he was dead from exhaustion.